Apple Let Malware Into Its iOS App Store

The iPhone's walled garden isn't quite as safe as Apple claims it is. Cupertino apparently let some sneaky malware through its approval process that stole your address book, Facebook and Twitter, and spammed your friends with text messages pretending to be you.

It's not the kind of thing you'd expect to hear from something with a rigourous, authoritarian approval process, but according to Kasperky, Apple screwed up and let "Find and Call" into its App Store. The malware also managed to find its way into the Google Play Store too, but considering Google doesn't claim to have a perfect walled garden, it's not quite as big of a shock; it's still bad news though.

The app promised free calls, but you had to give it your email address, phone number, social network credentials, and access to your address book, before it would pretend to do its thing. Once in, it sent everything back to a server, stealing your data. The app has since been removed from both app stores, but where there's one there could be many more.

If you want free calls, stick to Skype folks. If something appears to be too good to be true, even if Apple's given it its blessing, it probably is. [Kaspersky via TechEye]